Chapter 6
India’s Bioeconomy and the Ambition
over “Wastelands”
Abstract While India aims for a broad bioeconomy, its experience in devising novel
bio-based sectors has been mostly with biofuels. The country has had one of the
world’s most ambitious biofuel policies, yet reality checks have revealed numerous
issues. Ethanol production based on sugarcane has increased but has little room
for expansion. The main effort has been a large-scale biodiesel endeavor based on
non-edible feedstocks to be cultivated on “wastelands.” However, the deployment of
Jatropha curcas through smallholder contracting or on public lands has left India’s
rural poor mostly worse off, and without any commercial production taking place.
This analysis suggests that domestic public policies have been the leading cause,
largely overlooking local resource uses and jatropha’s input requirements. Lack of
agreement with rural dwellers, in turn, resulted in local boycotts and sabotage of
feedstock cultivation in parts of India. Such a top-down approach to rural development, without meaningful stakeholder consultation, has transferred legal or de facto
control over land and freshwater from local communities to the private sector or the
state. This biofuels experience sets a problematic precedent for India’s broader bioeconomy, as already vulnerable actors have been disenfranchised instead of included
in reaping benefits and in governance.
Keywords Biofuels · Jatropha · Marginal lands · Value chains · Equity ·
Governance
India has a fledgling bioeconomy, as elsewhere grounded first and foremost on biofuel
sectors developed before the new umbrella-term gained currency. The country envisages a broader bioeconomy, and various biotechnology sectors have received growing
attention and investments (BIRAC 2019). However, these plans remain mostly at an
inception stage, and bioenergy represents most of the actual bioeconomy deployed.
India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and a major consumer of
energy, largely imported energy. It has therefore launched one of the most ambitious biofuel policy programs, which in turn paves the way for further bioeconomy
development. For ethanol, India has relied on its large sugarcane agroindustry (the
world’s second, after Brazil), while targeting vast swathes of marginal lands—or, in
the national policies’ language, “wastelands”—for biodiesel. Among various nonfood oil-bearing species such as neem (Melia azedarach) and pongamia (Millettia
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. G. Bastos Lima, The Politics of Bioeconomy and Sustainability,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66838-9_6
123
India’s Bioeconomy and the Ambition
over “Wastelands”
Abstract While India aims for a broad bioeconomy, its experience in devising novel
bio-based sectors has been mostly with biofuels. The country has had one of the
world’s most ambitious biofuel policies, yet reality checks have revealed numerous
issues. Ethanol production based on sugarcane has increased but has little room
for expansion. The main effort has been a large-scale biodiesel endeavor based on
non-edible feedstocks to be cultivated on “wastelands.” However, the deployment of
Jatropha curcas through smallholder contracting or on public lands has left India’s
rural poor mostly worse off, and without any commercial production taking place.
This analysis suggests that domestic public policies have been the leading cause,
largely overlooking local resource uses and jatropha’s input requirements. Lack of
agreement with rural dwellers, in turn, resulted in local boycotts and sabotage of
feedstock cultivation in parts of India. Such a top-down approach to rural development, without meaningful stakeholder consultation, has transferred legal or de facto
control over land and freshwater from local communities to the private sector or the
state. This biofuels experience sets a problematic precedent for India’s broader bioeconomy, as already vulnerable actors have been disenfranchised instead of included
in reaping benefits and in governance.
Keywords Biofuels · Jatropha · Marginal lands · Value chains · Equity ·
Governance
India has a fledgling bioeconomy, as elsewhere grounded first and foremost on biofuel
sectors developed before the new umbrella-term gained currency. The country envisages a broader bioeconomy, and various biotechnology sectors have received growing
attention and investments (BIRAC 2019). However, these plans remain mostly at an
inception stage, and bioenergy represents most of the actual bioeconomy deployed.
India is one of the world’s fastest-growing economies and a major consumer of
energy, largely imported energy. It has therefore launched one of the most ambitious biofuel policy programs, which in turn paves the way for further bioeconomy
development. For ethanol, India has relied on its large sugarcane agroindustry (the
world’s second, after Brazil), while targeting vast swathes of marginal lands—or, in
the national policies’ language, “wastelands”—for biodiesel. Among various nonfood oil-bearing species such as neem (Melia azedarach) and pongamia (Millettia
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
M. G. Bastos Lima, The Politics of Bioeconomy and Sustainability,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-66838-9_6
123